August 05, 2021 - Death of Language

 

This is not a new topic, as I know other friends have commented either on social media or in personal conversation.

 

It is the butchering of not only spelling, but punctuation and proper grammar. In some ways I blame texting. Back when mobile phones had crappy typing abilities and you would need to push a number multiple times to get the letter you wanted – then some shortcuts made sense. Such as u for you, 4 for for etc…

 

However with smartphones you can talk to text so there is no reason to keep using those old shortcuts. And when I see those in posts on Facebook, where I am assuming a lot of people were creating their posts on a computer and not a phone – then it really gets my goat.

 

I used to see this in business emails as well – responses with NO punctuation so you never knew when one sentence started and another stopped. Especially as all email programs do have a form of Spell Check – how is it even acceptable, on any level, for typos? I am just talking about basic conveyance of communication. Nothing fancy as in a technical report, award winning novel or graded essay. 

And yet, as much as I cringe when I read something where the author has used the incorrect version of your - you’re or to-too-two … Listening to people murder words in their speech is the equivelant of fingernails down a chalkboard. I have bitten my tongue more often than I would have ever thought I would need to in order not to interrupt those people and correct their linguistics.

 

The word is ASK not AX.

You are over using the word “literal / literally”

Shouting and repeating the same phrase over and over is not winning anyone over to your side, nor does it make any sense. i.e. “Did I say that? Did I say that? Did I Did I say that?   say that? Did I say that? Did I say that? Did I say that? Did I say that? Did I say that?....”

 

I really worry about the people who are younger than I am and will be taking over the leadership of institutions and governments. And yes – I know that makes me sound a million years old.